A. Nitrogen Assimilation and Metabolism
In many ecosystems, both natural and agricultural, the primary productivity of plants is limited by the three primary nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The most important of these three limiting nutrients is usually nitrogen. Nitrogen sources are often the major components in fertilizers (Hageman and Lambert, 1988, In. Corn and Corn Improvement, 3rd ed., Sprague & Dudley, American Society of Agronomy, pp. 431-461). Since nitrogen is usually the rate-limiting element in plant growth, most field crops have a fundamental dependence on inorganic nitrogenous fertilizer. The nitrogen source in fertilizer is usually ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, or urea. A significant percentage of the costs associated with crop production results from necessary fertilizer applications. However, it is known that most of the nitrogen applied is rapidly depleted by soil microorganisms, leaching, and other factors, rather than being taken up by the plants.
Nitrogen is taken up by plants primarily as either nitrate (NO3−) or ammonium (NH4+). Some plants are able to utilize the atmospheric N2 pool through a symbiotic association with N2-fixing bacteria or ascomycetes. In well aerated, non-acidic soils, plants take up NO3− which is converted to NH4+. In acidic soils, NH4+ is the predominate form of inorganic nitrogen present and can be taken up directly by plants. NH4+ is then converted to glutamine and glutamate by the enzymes glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT). The glutamine and glutamate can be converted into a variety of amino acids, as shown in FIG. 1.
Although some nitrate and ammonia can be detected in the transporting vessels (xylem and phloem), the majority of nitrogen is first assimilated into organic form (e.g., amino acids) which are then transported within the plant. Glutamine, asparagine and aspartate appear to be important in determining a plants ability to take up nitrogen, since they represent the major long-distance nitrogen transport compounds in plants and are abundant in phloem sap. Aside from their common roles as nitrogen carriers, these amino acids have somewhat different roles in plant nitrogen metabolism. Glutamine is more metabolically active and can directly donate its amide nitrogen to a large number of substrates. Because of this reactivity, glutamine is generally not used by plants to store nitrogen. By contrast, asparagine is a more efficient compound for nitrogen transport and storage compared to glutamine because of its higher N:C ratio. Furthermore, asparagine is also more stable than glutamine and can accumulate to higher levels in vacuoles. Indeed, in plants that have high nitrogen assimilatory capacities, asparagine appears to play a dominant role in the transport and metabolism of nitrogen (Lam et al, 1995, Plant Cell 7: 887-898). Because of its relative stability, asparagine does not directly participate in nitrogen metabolism, but must be first hydrolysed by the enzyme asparaginase (ANS) to produce aspartate and ammonia which then can be utilized in the synthesis of amino acids and proteins.
However, in addition to aspartate and asparagine, a number of other amino acids can act as storage compounds. The total amount of free amino acids has been shown to change with specific stresses, both biotic and abiotic, different fertilizer regimes and other factors (Bohnert et al., 1995, Plant Cell 7:1099-1111). For example, during drought stress many plants maintain their turgor by osmotic adjustment (Turner, 1979, Stress Physiology in Crop Plants, pp. 181-194). Osmotic adjustment, i.e. a net increase in solutes leading to a lowering of osmotic potential, is one of the main mechanisms whereby crops can adapt to limited water availability (Turner, ibid; Morgan, 1984, Annu Rev Plant Physiol 35: 299-319). The solutes that accumulate during osmotic adjustment include sugars, organic acids and amino acids, such as alanine, aspartate and proline and glycine betaine (Good and Zaplachinski, 1994, Physiol Plant 90: 9-14; Hanson and Hitz, 1982, Annu Rev Plant Physiol 33: 163-203; Jones and Turner, 1978, Plant Physiol 61: 122-126). Corn, cotton, soybean and wheat have all demonstrated osmotic adjustment during drought (Morgan, ibid.). One of the best characterized osmoregulatory responses is the accumulation of proline (Hanson and Hitz, ibid.). In some tissues, proline levels increase as much as 100-fold in response to osmotic stress (Voetberg and Sharp, 1991, Plant Physiol 96: 1125-1130). The accumulation of proline results from an increased flux of glutamate to pyrroline-5-carboxylate and proline in the proline biosynthetic pathway, as well as decreased rates of proline catabolism (Rhodes et al., 1986, Plant Physiol 82:890-903; Stewart et al., 1977, Plant Physiol. 59:930-932). The concentrations of alanine and aspartate have been shown to increase 3.6 and 4.1-fold, respectively, during drought stress in Brassica napus leaves, whereas glutamate levels increased 5.5-fold (Good and Maclagan, 1993, Can J Plant Sci 73: 525-529). Alanine levels declined after rewatering of the plants whereas aspartate levels remained high. Pyruvate levels showed a similar pattern, increasing 2.2-fold after 4 days of drought, followed by the return to control levels upon rehydration. However, 2-oxoglutarate levels remained relatively constant during drought stress and rehydration. One of the factors that may determine the value of a specific amino acid as an osmoprotectant may be its use as a carbon or nitrogen storage compound.
Alanine is one of the common amino acids in plants. In Brassica leaves under normal conditions, alanine and aspartate concentrations are roughly equal and have been found to be twice that of asparagine concentrations. In comparison, glutamate levels were double that of alanine or aspartate (Good and Zaplachinski, ibid.). Alanine is synthesized by the enzyme alanine aminotransferase (AlaAT) from pyruvate and glutamate in a reversible reaction (Goodwin and Mercer, 1983, Introduction to Plant Biochemistry 2nd Ed., Pergamon Press, New York, N.Y., pp. 341-343), as shown in FIG. 2. In addition to drought, alanine is an amino acid that is known to increase under other specific environmental conditions such as anaerobic stress (Muench and Good, 1994, Plant Mol. Biol. 24:417-427; Vanlerberge et al., 1993, Plant Physiol. 95:655-658). Alanine levels are known to increase substantially in root tissue under anaerobic stress. As an example, in barley roots alanine levels increase 20 fold after 24 hours of anaerobic stress. The alanine aminotransferase gene has also been shown to be induced by light in broom millet and when plants are recovering from nitrogen stress (Son et al., 1992, Arch Biochem Biophys 289:262-266). Vanlerberge et al. (1993) have shown that in nitrogen starved anaerobic algae, the addition of nitrogen in the form of ammonia resulted in 93% of an N15 label being incorporated directly into alanine. Thus, alanine appears to be an important amino acid in stress response in plants.
The nitrate transporter genes, nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR) (Crawford, 1995, Plant Cell 7:859-868; Cheng et al, 1988, EMBO J 7:3309-3314) have been cloned and studied, as have many of the genes encoding enzymes involved in plant nitrogen assimilation and metabolism. Glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthetase (GOGAT) have been cloned (Lam et al., ibid.; Zehnacker et al., 1992, Planta 187:266-274; Peterman and Goodman, 1991, Mol. Gen. Genet. 230:145-154) as have asparaginase (ANS) and aspartate aminotrarsferase (AspAT) (Lam et al., ibid; Udvardi and Kahn, 1991, Mol. Gen. Genet. 231:97-105). An asparagine synthetase (AS) gene has been cloned from pea (Tsai and Coruzzi, 1990, EMBO J 9:323-332). Glutamate dehydrogenase has been cloned from maize (Sakakibara et al., 1995, Plant Cell Physiol. 36(5):789-797. Alanine aminotransferase has been cloned by Son et al. (1993, Plant Mol. Biol. 20:705-713) and by Muench and Good, (1994 Plant Mol. Biol. 24:417427). Among the plant nitrogen assimilation and utilization genes, the most extensively studied are the glutamine synthetase and asparagine synthetase genes.
In plants, genetic engineering of nitrogen assimilation processes has yielded varied results. Numerous studies examining constitutive overexpression of glutamine synthetase (GS) have failed to report any positive effect of its overexpression on plant growth. These studies include, for example: Eckes et al. (1989, Molec. Gen. Genet. 217:263-268) using transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing alfalfa GS; Hemon et al. (1990, Plant Mol. Biol. 15:895-904) using transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing bean GS in the cytoplasm or mitochondria; and Hirel et al. (1992, Plant Mol. Biol. 20:207-218) using transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing soybean GS. One study, by Temple et al (1993, Mol. Gen. Genet. 236:315-325), has reported increases in total soluble protein content in transgenic tobacco plants overexpressing an alfalfa GS gene and similar increases in total soluble protein content in transgenic tobacco plants expressing antisense RNA to a GS gene.
There has been a report that plants engineered to constitutively overexpress an alfalfa GS gene grow more rapidly than control, wild-type plants (Eckes et al., 1988, Australian published patent application no. 17321/88). Another report (Coruzzi and Brears 1994, WO 95/09911) introduced GS, GOGAT and AS constructs under the control of a constitutive Cauliflower Mosaic Virus 35S (CaMV35S) promoter. This document showed that the transgenic plants had increased fresh weight and growth advantage over controls. Thus, there appears to be no clear direction on the effect of constitutive overexpression of nitrogen assimilation enzymes on plant growth.
B. Turgor Responsive Promoters
Maintenance of normal growth and function in plants is dependent on a relatively high intracellular water content. Drought, low temperature and high salinity are all environmental stresses that alter cellular water balance and significantly limit plant growth and crop yield (Morgan, ibid.). Many physiological processes change in response to conditions that reduce cellular water potential, including photosynthesis, stomatal opening and leaf, stem and root growth (Hanson and Hitz, ibid.) Along with physiological responses, metabolic changes can also occur during water loss. One of the most notable changes is in the synthesis and accumulation of low molecular weight, osmotically active compounds, as noted above.
Changes in gene expression also occur during osmotic stress. A number of genes have recently been described that are induced by drought (reviewed by Skiver and Mundy, 1990, Plant Cell 2:503-512).